More Articles on Sly 2: Band of Thieves
Sly 2: Band of ThievesExclusive: Sly 2 InterviewSly Raccoon 2: Band of Thieves AnnouncedSly Racoon 2 – First DetailsLatest Features
Exclusive: Dawn of War 2: Eldar RevealedUK Exclusive: Lineage II Chaotic Throne Gracia FictionUK Exclusive: Dawn Of War II Q&A - Part 2The Bourne Conspiracy Dev Diary 4UK Exclusive: Dawn Of War II Q&AUser Reviews
There are currently 0 User Reviews for Sly 2: Band of ThievesWrite your own review for this game today and you will receive 100 Gamer Points.
Click here to register
Exclusive: Sly 2 Interview Feature
Derek dela Fuente
24/08/2004
TVG grabs a Swag Bag and infiltrates Sucker Punch to get the lowdown on Sly 2...
With the original title a worldwide million seller, the action adventure continues in the sequel with a number of familiar features, including many of Sucker Punchâs signature talents including award winning toon-shaded animation and art direction, visual style, immersive storylines, strong characters, and highly interactive worlds, plus a fist load of new innovations.
Sly 2: Band of Thieves will introduce never seen before design innovations, including all-new heist gameplay as players experience the next level of story driven, team based adventures. Incorporating a creative new approach to team play, Sly and his crew work together to plan and pull off a series of big heists. With an enhanced move set, including pick-pocketing, vent crawls, rooftop chases, and stealth attacks, and a team of unique playable characters,
As they say, Sly and his crew are back. Word is out that Interpol has excavated the robotic remains of Clockwerk â“ Slyâs nemesis and sworn enemy of the Cooper clan. Sly and his gang discover the parts of Clockwerk are missing, and embark on a quest to ensure Clockwerk is never reassembled. The journey takes Sly and his crew to the far reaches of the globe, and along the way experience a plot full of deceit, surprising twists, and an exciting romantic triangle that will leave you wanting more.
Derek dela Fuente spoke with Rob McDaniel-Game Designer at Sucker Punch Productions to get a fuller insight into some of the exciting elements on offer.
TVG: Firstly, were Sony and the dev team surprised at the success of Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus and what, if any, lessons or ideas were learnt that will be used in Sly2?
We were certainly hoping for the success we had with the first game. You donât spend two and a half years hand crafting something like Sly Cooper without hoping that it will sell a few copies and that the people who play it will love the characters and have fun with the whole gaming experience. The criticism of Sly 1 influenced the development of Sly 2 more than the praise we received. We understood how to make another game that kept the stylish visuals and thiefy vibe of the first one. The aspects of game length, linearity, and performance issues were all areas where we made big changes because we agreed with those criticisms.
TVG: Do you think that the single-player platformer is a much-maligned genre and do you feel that with the success of Sly we may see many more developers creating similar games?
Thankfully, there seems to be room in the marketplace for all kinds of games. It would be a terrible if everyone was only willing to make clones of the last multi-million unit seller. Every game does not have to have huge cities and have an online multiplayer component to be a good game. Those features can certainly have positive aspects for a game, but they are not necessary. As for Slyâs influence on the overall market â“ you know itâs really not something we worry about too much. We obviously believe in the type of game that Sly is, and all we can do is try to make it the absolute best game we can.
TVG: Can you tell the readers who may not be au fait with Sly how Sucker Punch Productions went about creating this character, Sly â“ his look and attributes and in Sly 2 what have you added to his skill sets and characteristics?
Sly evolved from wanting to make a game that was about being places you were not supposed to be and doing things that you shouldnât be doing. Like prowling across a rooftop over security guards and stealing stuff. Add to that a desire to do something with the raccoon villain Jojo from our first game Rocket, and we had the perfect cartoony thief character. Our art director loved the idea of a racoon who has a natural mask over his eyes putting on another mask. These original ideas lead to the development of Sly for the first game. Since then, Sly has changed a bit -- he has matured some, he is no longer trying to prove to everyone that he is a master thiefâ¦he is a master thief. With the increased confidence and maturity his look has changed to match it. In the new game he has gained new core abilities that make him a better thief like pick pocketing and crawling and hiding under objects in the environment, and a special sneak attack. As the game progresses you can earn even more abilities for himself and for Bentley and Murray.
TVG: Please can you tell us a little about the backdrop story and will Slyâs exploits â“ in both actions and game style, be very much along the lines of the original product?
The story picks up around two years after the end of the first game. Sly discovers that after he defeated Clockwerk in a Russian volcano, Carmelitaâs and Interpol extracted all the broken pieces of Clockwerk and put them into a storage facility in Cairo, Egypt. So the gang organizes a scheme to break into this facility and steal away the parts before someone does something stupid with them...like reconstructing this avian death machine whose sole purpose is wiping out all members of the Cooper family line. However, when Sly gets to the warehouse where the Clockwerk parts are being held he finds out someone else has already stolen them. Carmelita shows up just in time and accuses Sly of stealing the parts himself. They find out latter that a new criminal organization stole the parts and are using the pieces of Clockwerk to support their own criminal activities. So, the rest of the game unfolds as Sly, Bentley, and Murray track down the crime lords who took the Clockwerk parts and figure out how to steal those parts back. The biggest changes to the gameplay are the larger open environments to allow more improvised gameplay, the introduction of Bentley and Murray as fully playable characters, and the way each episode builds up to a heist you have to use all of the characters to pull off.
TVG: A two part questions. How important is it for the player to have a real affinity with the character they control and how do the team go about making it a loveable character and secondly are there any other âfamousâ gaming characters that have inspired the creation of Sly?
Itâs pretty important having the character you control being someone you like. In the first game we established Sly as the cool, confident, smart, gentleman thief in part by contrasting him with the nerdy Bentley and the big cowardly Murray. A great challenge came up in creating Sly 2 because of this. Since the player would be controlling Bentley and Murray we had to tweak their look and personalities to make them a bit more heroic and capable. The players would not be acting cowardly when they were Murray, they would run around and try and beat everyone up. So they had to reflect more of how they would be played. As for influences on Sly, the villainous racoon Jojo from our first game certainly was the biggest inspiration for Sly. We actually started with a higher poly version of the Jojo model when we first started doing animation tests for Sly. The pillow shaped body of Jojo never felt sleek and agile enough to be a master thief, so he slimmed down and evolved into the Sly we know and love today.
TVG: What are the prime objectives for Sly in Band of Thieves and can you expand on one event in the game that really conjures up the spirit and ethos of this growing brand?
Sly and the gang plan and pull off a series of elaborate heists by working together as a team. Before a heist takes place you have to complete these smaller jobs to be ready for the heist. This can include taking reconnaissance photos, planting listening devices in a bossâs office, cutting power to security devices, hacking into the bossâs computer systems. Some of these are done with one character, others you need to work together like Sly and Murray fighting together against guards so that Bentley has time to gain control of a winch system they will need later.
TVG: Sly 2 makes a bold move away from the traditional collect-em-up mechanics of the platform genre; what provides the main content for the sequel to replace this?
There are series of challenges that you need to accomplish to be ready for the heist and then you have the final stealing of the Clockwerk part. These challenges varying greatly throughout the game from stealthy action, full out brawls, and many different styles of mini-games. We also have what we call a thief economy. You are able to steal items out of the pockets of NPCs and from special loot sites in the environment and sell them on ThiefNet where you can then buy special moves and powerups for all three of the characters.
TVG: Could you please give us a rundown of the three characters and what players can get up to when they take control of Sly, Bentley and Murray; how does the game link the three characters for specific sections of the mission?
Well, Sly is the master thief. Playing him is all about being sneaky and agile. You can run along ropes, climb up pipes, pickpocket guards and then sneak attack them to take them out fast. Sly is the star and you play with him more than the other guys. Bentley is smart and tricky so he doesn't go rushing into fights, instead he can use his tranquilliser gun to put people to sleep to avoid conflicts. Plus he has bombs he can drop to do demolitions jobs. Murray is a big strong guy, so he is more of a brawler who can also use objects in the environment as thrown weapons. One example of how they work together is Murray has move where he can catch Bentley and then throw him to a place where Bentley could not get to on his own. Another is when Sly is able to steal a key from a guard and then gives it to Bentley and Murray so they can steal a repair truck.
TVG: Weâve heard suggestions of non-linear levels and a nod to GTA in this respect; perhaps you could give us a brief description in regards to this area?
The game design for the overall levels were about how to make Sly, and the player, feel as much like a thief as possible. By really working on the enemy AI and opening up the environments to have width in the gameplay rather than a narrow tube, we got to a point where the player suddenly has to improvise a ton while playing the game. And that is what being a thief is all about, not knowing exactly what you are going to be doing from moment to moment and making those decisions for yourself. From an abstract point of view, it is somewhat like GTA, but I think the experience when you play Sly is much different. We created this massive jungle-gym that Sly is able to crawl all over and really take advantage of. Our goal was to make it constantly interesting to move across and deal with all the NPCs that are patrolling the area.
Sly 2: Band of Thieves is scheduled for release on October 7th; weâll have more coverage soon.
